Hey guys, got a new lens for my camera and took a few shots of my dog, Zoey. These were my favorite.
I'm not a pro by any means, I shoot with a D3100 paired with a 35mm 1.8g and just started with this hobby. With that being said, all constructive critism welcome and appreciated! Feel free to rework anything as well.

I prefer the last pose, but the background out of focus area is a bit messy. Others can do a better job of helping you fix it. What aperture did you use? For a shot like this you probably ought to experiment with your gear and use the widest aperture that provides a sharp image of the subject. I would start with f1.8 for this and work up.

Perhaps a 50 or even 70mm would work better. Longer lenses have less depth of field.

For testing a 35mm, I would suggest a landscape subject and stopped down to at least f8 and see if everything is sharp. Or perhaps a portrait? I don't do portraits so I am not sure this is a good focal length for it.

I am not a portrait photographer, animal of human, but I took photo #3 and reduced the contrast and blurred the background, lightened and sharpened Zoey. I reduced saturation on the backround did a little cloning and painted over the backround with a beige tone at a low opacity on a color layer. You might consider adding a vignette as well.

I suspect folks will generally like the third better because it has less perspective distortion. When shooting very close, unless you want a very large nose (and in this case maybe tongue) shooting profiles reduces the perspective distortion issues. (To a degree it's possible o also reduce perspective distortion in PP using the Liquify tool in photoshop.)

For example, this version of the first image uses PS Liquify tool to reduce the size and reshape the nose and tongue. It also has changes to reduce the vignette and better distribute the vignette to emphasize Zoey's face. It has a partial blur on the background to simulate a wider taking aperture.

I suspect folks will generally like the third better because it has less perspective distortion. When shooting very close, unless you want a very large nose (and in this case maybe tongue) shooting profiles reduces the perspective distortion issues. (To a degree it's possible o also reduce perspective distortion in PP using the Liquify tool in photoshop.)

For example, this version of the first image uses PS Liquify tool to reduce the size and reshape the nose and tongue. It also has changes to reduce the vignette and better distribute the vignette to emphasize Zoey's face. It has a partial blur on the background to simulate a wider taking aperture.

Thank you everyone for the tips, I do greatly appreciate it! I shot at 2.8 for all three photos. I only used LR in this since I've been extremely lazy and have'nt gotten around to installing PS. Aunti, I loved what you did with the vignette. I tried shooting at 1.8 but I just couldn't get the focus down right since Zoey NEVER sits still.